


I Saw It In A Movie Once

by miera



Category: Stargate: Atlantis
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-23
Updated: 2010-07-23
Packaged: 2017-10-10 18:35:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/102814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miera/pseuds/miera
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Elizabeth's turn to rescue John this time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Saw It In A Movie Once

**Author's Note:**

> Written for melyanna. She'll probably guess why.

He isn't sure what day it is. His arms hang limply over his head, held up by the chains around his wrists. He hasn't been fed in a couple days, just given a little water.

He thinks it's night by the level of quiet in the halls. His eyes are covered by a blindfold, so he can't tell for sure.

John leans his head back against the wall and admits to himself that he might not make it out of here.

***

Elizabeth calls on years of practice to keep her expression right as she is hauled into the massive stone building on a planet with just about the worst reputation in the galaxy. The stench is like a physical blow, and she'd thought it smelled bad outside.

The hand on her arm tightens and she is shoved to her knees in a dark room. Disreputable looking men seated around a table all freeze, staring at the kneeling woman and the masked figure standing over her holding a wicked looking assortment of weapons.

She glares at her captor and then turns her icy gaze on the men. These gangsters are the worst of the worst, and she is going to have to play it smart to get out of this and meet her objective.

***

John no longer notices people being taken in or out of the cells. He doesn't really react anymore unless he hears the distinctive creak of his own cell door opening.

He thinks he hears voices, sounds like something scratching at metal. But he's not entirely sure he's not hallucinating from hunger, so he doesn't bother moving.

***

Elizabeth hears the sounds of a scuffle down the hallway. She's been tense for so long everything hurts, but she puts it out of her mind. This is her one chance.

Footsteps approach and her captor has found her again, the ugly mask looking even more alarming in the bare light in the cell block.

The bounty hunter lifts a ring of heavy keys and begins methodically checking until the door to Elizabeth's cell opens. Loudly.

Both of them pause, but there is no reaction.

Her captor crosses the cell and finds the key to unlock the chains on Elizabeth's wrists. She stands, slightly wobbly, but she's not about to give up now.

"We should've brought oil for the cell doors," she murmurs, leading the way out into the hall. John wasn't on this floor, so they had to go up and start searching.

***

Panic surges through him when his cell door opens. If it is the middle of the night, this can't be anything good. People approach him and he feels vibrations through the metal encasing his wrists. He squirms, frustrated, knowing he's too damn weak to put up a fight.

Hands touch his face. A low voice speaks, "John, hold still."

His breath catches and now he's sure he must be dreaming. "Who is that?" he whispers hoarsely.

She pulls his blindfold off, but it doesn't help much, because everything is dark and blurry. "Don't tell me you've forgotten me already," she says with a breathless chuckle, and he'd know that voice anywhere.

"_Elizabeth_."

Then she kisses him and he doesn't know whether to gloat or scream, because he's not sure which is worse: if he's so far gone he's hallucinating that she's here, or if he's not and she really is in this wretched place. But he kisses her back for a minute, stealing the comfort even if it's not real.

She draws away, though. "We have to get you out of here. Can you walk?"

He realizes there's another person in the room, someone in armor and a mask of some sort, jangling through keys until the bar holding his hands up gives way. He grunts, trying to keep down the cry of pain from his shoulders as his arms fall for the first time in days.

"I'll manage," he grits out, but he can barely stand.

The third person waves. "Help him." The voice is growly, oddly distorted. John can't piece this together, but Elizabeth wraps an arm around his waist and her other arm around his chest and her body is warm and solid against him. He'll take whatever help he can get and he figures he has nothing left to lose, so he focuses all his energy on helping Elizabeth help him walk out of his prison.

***

They make it down to the lower level before they run into trouble. Elizabeth knew this was going too smoothly.

"Get him out of here," the bounty hunter orders, turning to fire upon the disheveled and disorganized guards belatedly chasing them.

Elizabeth is torn for a moment but John is too weak to make it without help, and it's not like she can do much in a fire fight. Bracing herself she more or less drags John's unresisting body across the threshold and out into the night. The putrid air outside is a wonderful relief.

Elizabeth moves to the right, down the muddy road towards a bunch of rocks. She can't help glancing behind her periodically in between frantically scanning the road ahead.

Something pops up from behind a boulder and for a second alarm sweeps through her as the person looms out of the darkness. But she catches sight of familiar dreadlocks and sighs in relief.

"How is he?" Ronon asks, keeping a wary eye and ready weapon on the road, which is still empty.

"It's bad," she gasps out. Before she can say anything else, two Marines appear from the darkness further along and she gestures for them to take John, whose breathing is labored. They hit a snag, though, when he won't let go of Elizabeth.

She tries to convince him it's okay but there are noises from the street. Elizabeth turns to see the bounty hunter running full tilt towards them.

Teyla's lost the ugly mask she was wearing, and the armor is probably slowing her down a little. Fortunately Ronon begins firing at the goons chasing her, the Marines join in a second later and everyone retreats swiftly to the cloaked jumper. Lorne has them in the air before the hatch is even shut and Elizabeth crashes onto a bench with John still clutching her.

Teyla leans against the bulkhead, winded from the run. Ronon touches her shoulder and she assures him with a nod she is okay. She looks towards Elizabeth, who shrugs. John is slumped against the wall, possibly unconscious, but still hanging onto her with a death grip. They need to get him back to Atlantis and to Carson.

Elizabeth looks at Teyla for a long moment, knowing words are never going to be able to express her gratitude.

Teyla smiles a little and sits down to begin removing her disguise.

***

He sleeps for more than a day in the infirmary, with an IV pumping fluids and stuff into him. Carson also put him on some strong antibiotics. John managed to ask why but Carson hesitated then told him he was probably happier not knowing.

John just shrugged and fell back asleep.

He finally rouses late on the second day after his rescue from the alien prison. Before he has a chance to start to get bored, Elizabeth appears with a tray holding sandwiches.

He'll never tell her but he's about as glad to see the sandwich as he is to see her.

While they eat she fills him in on what went on in Atlantis from the point where he went missing, how Lorne's team tracked down the guys who jumped their C.O. and Ronon and Teyla figured out where the gangsters were holding John. "Then Teyla had the idea to use a fake prisoner to get in the door."

He raised his eyebrows. "And you volunteered?" It's only just now sinking in how incredibly dangerous it was for Elizabeth to get herself locked up in that place. His stomach is churning thinking about the myriad ways it could've gone horribly wrong.

She must notice his expression because her fingertips brush along his forearm. "I'm fine, John. I only there a couple of hours." He doesn't point out that a lot of terrible things could have happened in a couple of hours. "Besides Teyla was never very far away."

He still hates it, but there's nothing he can do about it now except ask more questions. "Why didn't you send in Ronon?" That would've been his first choice, followed by a list of people who were not Elizabeth.

"We did think of that," Elizabeth chewed another bite of her dinner and swallowed. "Then we found out that Ronon had run across these guys once before. They might not have waited two hours to kill him."

It takes him a minute to figure out what she said and he frowns. "I meant, why not send in Ronon in the disguise." There's definitely a glimmer of a smile around her mouth and John's intrigued. Elizabeth shrugs noncommittally. "Elizabeth?"

"Well," she says. "Teyla got the idea of using a bounty hunter as a way to get in the door, someone holding a valuable prisoner. She said it was thanks to you."

John is going to blame the drugs still in his system, because he can't make heads or tails out of what Elizabeth's saying. "Me?"

She grins. "You're the one who made her watch _Return of the Jedi_ with you."

His eyes go wide for a minute, then he starts to laugh. Elizabeth wraps a hand around his and another thought occurs to him. "You know, I thought Ronon was my Chewbacca."

She gives him a patented "why do I put up with you" look and then says, "Just don't get any ideas about Teyla being the Leia to your Han Solo."

He tugs on her hand and Elizabeth darts a quick look around the infirmary to make sure they're alone before she leans down and kisses him. He raises his free hand to touch her cheek. "The only person I want to see in that gold bikini is you," he tells her. Which isn't entirely true because he wouldn't object to seeing Teyla in one (just seeing, of course), but Elizabeth doesn't need to know that.

Then again, the look she shoots him tells him she probably knows it and doesn't care. Elizabeth kisses him again, more slowly, and bites down on his lower lip gently before pulling away. John whimpers a little, wishing they weren't in the infirmary and he wasn't hooked up to all these machines.

Her fingers run through his hair and she pulls away over his protests. "Get some sleep, Captain Solo. That's an order."

"Yes, your worshipfulness." She rolls her eyes and starts to walk away but he calls after her. "Elizabeth?"

When she looks back at him, he wants to tell her... something. But he's not sure what to say or how to say it.

As always, Elizabeth reads him like an open book. "I know," she says softly, and leaves.

John yawns and settles more deeply into the bed. His last thought before he falls asleep is that Rodney and Radek probably wouldn't appreciate it if he started calling them Threepio and Artoo.


End file.
